Billy Joe Saunders wants to return in December, calls out Amir Khan

Billy Joe Saunders successfully retained his WBO middleweight title yesterday in London with a decision win over Willie Monroe Jr, and now the 28-year-old southpaw is looking forward to December, when he wants to get right back into the ring.

Saunders (25-0, 12 KO) says he’s as ready for Gennady Golovkin as he’s going to get, for what would be a unification bout for all four middleweight sanctioning body titles, though trainer Dominic Ingle says he’d rather see Saunders face someone else first.

Another name called out by Saunders is Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KO), who hasn’t fought since a May 2016 loss to Canelo Alvarez, when it was proven pretty definitively that he’s not a middleweight.

“I just want a good fight, a big fight, that’s what I’m in boxing for — to get fights which will get me up. He’s a very good name and I rate him. I’ve watched him for years and years. … I don’t call his name out being disrespectful to him. I call it because I think he’s a good fighter who I’ve watched for years. He and Kell [Brook] seem miles apart at the minute so if he’s willing to come up to middleweight, like he did for Canelo, he might think he’s got a chance of winning my world title.”

Khan turns 31 in December and, again, isn’t really a middleweight, but do you think a fight with Saunders, who isn’t a big puncher, might be an interesting one? Or would Saunders simply wind up too big and strong for Khan, who might also have ring rust as a major factor were he to take a December bout?